Congratulations on your new house and impending remodel. My first thought was 'paint the moulding', then I read that is exactly what you've done. Even though the walls are newly painted, I'd paint the cabinets a shade of white, and put the color on the walls--walls are so much easier to repaint than cabinets.

I like the light gray in this kitchen (not too crazy about the narrow aisle, though):

Martha Stewart gray kitchen sampler on Atticmag

For good advice on paint colors, you can post on the Home Decorating forum.

dietician just posted a reveal of her beautiful new kitchen, and included pics of her DR cabinets in BM Stonington Gray:

mama goose_gw zn6OH, thanks for taking the time to give input! I thought of using the wall color to inject, but since it's so open, the walls are pretty much continuous so it would be difficult to cut it off somewhere without doing the whole house, which I'm afraid will darken it too much. Also thought of doing uppers vs. lowers, but not sure what I'd do with all the tall cabinets (light or dark?). I actually was inspired by Martha Stewart's Sharkey Gray cabinet color in the first place and the colors I got at BM are the most similar!

I also failed to mention that the wall that we are taking out the uppers on the wall with the windows and the wall over the stove and replacing with wood floating shelves and white subway tile almost all the way up. The hood will be a stainless wall mount. I trust this will open and brighten things up, leaving us only with the corner upper, the tall cabinets, and the fridge enclosure/cabinet....

Here's a photo of the living room looking into the kitchen from the entry so you get an idea of what the kitchen will be the backdrop for....

You can also see the painted molding here! We could probably lose the dark blinds too:) The plan is that all the toy clutter will move inside the cabinets under the new counter height rectangular 4 X 8 island...

mama goose_gw zn6OH, I would love to enlarge the window but I don't think it's in our budget. (any idea what that runs?) I'm hoping doing open shelves and getting rid of that horrible valance on that wall will allow more light in.

I suggest you start a new thread with your layout, and more information about your family and how you use your kitchen. The layout experts can help you a lot!

A light backsplash will help brighten up the space as well Maybe a simple subway.

Look at Edgecomb Gray BM. It's a nice light greige. Pewter Revere is a pretty dark color. You can always get them adjusted down to 50% to play with some different options. I would also look at Owl Gray.

The brick on the current island is not staying? That gives you a chance to make the perimeter cabinets one color, with a darker color on the new island base. With fewer cabinets to paint, the pale gray is sounding better.

There's a big difference in the colors on the two pics, at least on my monitor. The bricks looks grayish in the first pic, and in the second, looks peachy. The cabinets look much darker in the second pic, so I can see why you want to make them lighter. Good luck!

Here's some photos of kitchens I love on Houzz, just afraid to trust the brightness factor since photos can be doctored...

They're calling this BM Smoke Embers but that seems really light for smoke embers

Summit Signature Homes, Inc. · More Info

This is BM Apparition, similar to Revere Pewter

2014 Fall Parade of Homes - The Chorley Cottage · More Info

Pinetree Kitchen Renovation · More Info

BM Nimbus, another similar color

Transitional Kitchen · More Info

This is the MS Sharkey Gray cabinet color

Martha's Maine Remodel · More Info

This is Revere Pewter, but look at that huge window to brighten it up!

Presidio Heights Residence · More Info

This is BM Harbor Gray but the chip looks a lot more blue

Kitchen · More Info

See my conundrum?

I also thought of doing a white kitchen (maybe same Cloud White as the walls in the rest of the home?) and then doing a backsplash like this one...

San Jose Res 2 · More Info

Here's a photo of the open shelving we're going for but ours will be longer

Haight Ashbury Residence · More Info

Okay, sorry if this is too much info!

Awww, I just noticed the kitchen play center--I love seeing those is the middle of the action. I have one (for my grands) sitting a few feet from my kitchen. ;)

Can you hang some white sheets or disposable paper table cloths in front of the current cabinets? That way the light-sucking dark cabinet color will be gone, and you might get a better idea of your gray/greige samples. (The kids can color on the table cloths when you're finished with them.)

If you have the budget for new cabs and island, you have lots of other options to consider. At least get a price for a larger window. And think about the pros and cons of open shelving. There are threads on that topic here

mama goose_gw zn6OH, I love the white table cloth idea! Thank you!

junco East Georgia zone 8a, thanks for the advice, I haven't really posted to the forum before, so not sure how to use... I'll look into the window too. Unfortunately, the light coming in is still shaded by the covered back porch, but I'm sure it would help...

mama goose_gw zn6OH, Faux brick is definitely NOT staying!!! And yes, I love the idea of a super light gray on the perimeter and darker on the island, but having trouble picking the perimeter, a little wary of then trying to find a darker color that looks good. I'm going to talk to my painter about lightening up Revere Pewter or Nimbus on the cabinets...

I have most of the colors in this thread on my walls now. I tested Gray owl and Stonington Gray in the bathroom and am going with Gray owl. Stonington is too blue. I have Revere Pewter, Edgecomb Gray and Balboa mist on a few walls now and am leaning toward Balboa Mist for the living room and dining room and Edgecomb gray for the bedroom. Revere Pewter is too dark. All the colors look different depending on the amount of sunlight in the space. Have you considered changing out your lightbulbs to a 4100K or 5000K colors?

Thanks for the input, Katrina Tate. That's the other thing, we're going to replace the cans with LED cans and then drop 2 pendants over the island, so lighting will be much better in there. I'm leaning toward balboa mist on the perimeter and revere pewter on the island. Do you have white trim? Is there a significant contrast between the balboa mist and trim? I think Edgecomb may look too brown for me...

We are installing white molding. We have no molding now. I'm leaning toward Decorators White for the molding. The Balboa mist looks almost gray against a white wall with tons of sunlight. When the sun shifts there is more of a contrast since Balboa mist turns a bit more greige.

Balboa Mist in on top in this photo. Edgecomb Gray is on the bottom.

Katrina Tate, thank you so much! This confirms what I'm seeing here. If I put the panels under the hood light the balboa mist looks really light, but if direct light is not on it, there's significant contrast. Since we don't really get direct light, I think we'll be okay with enough contrast on the balboa mist. Is this photo with direct light?

You have to test the colors but do not do it on the wall. Buy some cheap wood, have HD cut it into door size for you, prime then paint. The colors look much differently on wood than on the wall.

The wall colors were much darker. Both had two coats.

The colors also look different between 2700K and 5000K. I switched my lights to 5000K and liked certain colors better. It's because of the yellow tone from the lower Kelvin.

beachem, can you share what the colors are that you've posted? Also, we are planning on installing LED cans which are rated 2700K. Do you know if this will be a cooler or warmer light? Not sure how that will effect the color. Will also have some pendants, but none of that will happen until after the cabinet install. I guess that's why one hires a designer for this kind of thing!

Have you investigated the possibility of installing a couple of carefully placed skylights with built-in shades? That would give you the option of letting the sunshine in when you want to but keeping the porch shady and cool the rest of the time.

We tried all the colors Kate mentions above too. We loved Balboa Mist and painted all walls with it. Really pretty color, not dark at all just enough contrast with white crown.

If you are interested in doing a two-tone approach with lighter uppers and darker lowers, you might enjoy looking at 2LittleFishies reveal from a few years ago. Her color tones are different than what you are going for, but you can see how she divided the colors between lowers, uppers and full height cabinets. She put a lot of thought into how to divide things up, and it came out great.

Congrats on your new home and best wishes on your reno. : )

2LittleFishies Yellow Kitchen Reveal

Lighting is so important – and confusing! Here is a
great guide: Let
there be Light!